Thursday, September 20, 2012

Many might be familiar with Charles Soule's
name when browsing through the pages of one of his many comics or graphic
novels, but there is a lot more to this Michigan born musician and writer.
Growing up throughout Asia, he studied in Philadelphia and New York City before
settling in Brooklyn in the mid- 90's. An avid lover of music and travel,
perhaps one of his greatest journeys has been through written words and music
notes. Charles Soule was kind enough to sit down with This Peculiar Life NYC to
talk about putting the soul into his music, comics, and creating.

This Peculiar Life NYC: How long have you
lived in New York?

Charles Soule: I've lived in the city since 1996,
and I [feel like I] have a [been] here forever, at this point. Not that I mind.

T.P.L. NYC: How did you get into comics?

C.S.: I started reading comics when I was very
young - it can be a hard habit to break. My dad gave me my first book. He needed
my siblings and I to chill out while he ran an errand, so he zipped into a
drugstore and picked us up a little stack of comics. Mine was an issue of Fantastic Four with Asgardians involved
somehow. From then, my comics addiction went through a number of phases -
sometimes it would go into remission. By '98/'99, though, I realized there was
no point in fighting, and surrendered completely to the wonderful, crazy world
of comics. I've been there ever since, first (and still) as a voracious reader,
and now, amazingly, as a creator as well.

T.P.L. NYC: What was it about comics as
opposed to other artistic platforms?

C.S.: Well, I didn't actually begin there -
I've been writing for years. My first "book" was a children's story
about a unicorn I did in fourth grade, with art by Brad and Greg Mohr.
Unfortunately, the manuscript has since been lost. I've also been a musician
since I was three, first on the violin and then on the guitar. My first big
"try to go pro" writing efforts were novels, and comics writing just
grew organically out of that, more or less. I've always loved comic stories,
and it's no stretch at all to be making them.

T.P.L. NYC: How long have you been in comics?

C.S.: I started taking comics writing
seriously around 2004-2005, by contributing short stories to several
anthologies. That's always a good way to get your feet wet, I think - make sure
you can handle a small, self-contained story before you aspire to anything longer-form.
Long-form stories are in many ways just a bunch of short stories strung
together in any case (it's just that in a novel they're called
"scenes" or "chapters" as opposed to short stories. But I
digress. I got my first publishing deal for a full-length comics story in late
2007. That first book, Strongman,
appeared on shelves in spring 2009 from SLG, and I haven't looked back.

T.P.L. NYC: What is the difference between
writing novels as opposed to writing comics?

C.S.: Well, novels are incredibly solitary and
incredibly difficult. Not that comics aren't, but they're a different beast. I
spent several years on each of the two novels I've written, and the best
comparison I can come up with is the idea of taking a long drive across the
entire country by yourself. You'll come across some amazing things, and you'll
grow from the experience, but man, does it get lonely. With comics, you're
constantly bouncing the story off your various collaborators - the artists, the
letterer, etc. There are many more differences, but that's the one that sticks
out the most to me.

T.P.L. NYC: You are into music also, what are
some the instruments you play? Ever made an album or perform live somewhere? Tell
me a bit about the process, like how do you write your music and songs?

C.S.: My main instrument is the guitar, and
I'm a solid bassist. I also play violin, and I've got very basic competence on
keys, drums and most instruments with strings. No horns, though. I've been
playing live since I was 16, and I've done hundreds of shows at this point.
Many recordings too, although that's not as hard anymore as it used to be since
the home recording revolution (which I think is fantastic.) I studied music
theory and composition in college, and I've written everything from classical
to jazz to rock to musicals. I love music, and it's easily as much a part of my
creative life as writing, if not more.

T.P.L. NYC: I have noticed that many musicians
have been making comic versions of themselves such as K.I.S.S. and Coheed and
Cambria. What do you feel the connection between comics and music is?

C.S.: Music is a freewheeling, anything goes
discipline, and so is comics. There's a vibrant indie scene in both, and they
both have that collaborative aspect, as I mentioned above. Going from working
with musicians to working with artists is a natural. It's all about melding
your respective talents to make something that's a shared effort, something
bigger and better than any one of the group could have done on their own.

Photo by Sandy Pertuz

T.P.L. NYC: How does it feel being a working
writer in comics and making a living at it? Do you feel that this is something
that has become harder for hopefuls to achieve?

C.S.: I don't think it was ever easy. Making a
living from creative efforts is near-impossible. There's tons of competition
and very few slots. Making a living from creative efforts that aren't
compromised in some way (by conforming your creations to the expectations of
people who are funding them, for example) is even harder. There are only a
handful of people who get that far. I think you have to create to create.
Chasing dollars just leads to bad art and heartbreak, I think. Your goal should
be to get good, and then get great. If you can manage that, money will come.
Usually.

T.P.L. NYC: What do you feel you provide
readers with the most when it comes to your projects? Is it style, your
characters or the medium in which you tell your stories?

C.S.: I find it hard to evaluate my own stuff,
but I think I'm good at high concepts and character work. There are plenty of
areas in which I think I'm weak - not that I feel any burning need to share
those today - but I do think the people I write seem like real people, and do
things that real people would do. I'm pretty proud of that (assuming I'm not
totally confused about what my writing's actually like.)

T.P.L. NYC: Do you ever feel that your ideas
can be translated into different types of mediums? Like can a comic idea you
have ever be a book? How do you go about deciding which idea is going into
which medium?

C.S.: Great question. Over time, I've just
sort of developed a feel for what will work where. There are certain stories
that are very internalized - not particularly visual, or restrained to one
location. Those don't make for great comics, usually (although even those can
work, because as we know, comics can do anything!) You just have to feel it
out. I've got a comics story that happens to have tons of water and detailed
battle scenes in it - two things artists don't always love to draw. Still, when
it eventually DOES get done, it'll be amazing simply because of those tough
elements. It'll get there eventually.

T.P.L. NYC: For aspiring writers looking to
break into comics, the challenge can be difficult. How were you able to pitch
or get your work noticed by editors?

C.S.: Basically, you just have to sort of be
around a lot. Go to cons, network, get your talent noticed by anyone who's a
rung or two up the ladder from you. If you're cool, and you're good, maybe
they'll help pull you up to their level with a well-placed kind word here or
there to someone up the ladder from them. It's a long, iterative process
that takes a lot of focused effort. No one breaks in overnight. The standard
path is like five years from deciding to do comics professionally to actually
doing them professionally - that's about how long it was for me.

T.P.L. NYC: Did you pitch things to different
companies; are there comic book publishers that look at unsolicited material?

C.S.: Sure, I did, and still do. Every
publisher has their own feel, and you want to research who will be the best fit
for the story you're trying to tell. Lots of publishers look at unsolicited
material: Image, Shadowline, SLG, Archaia and others will check your stuff out
- but if it's not ready for prime time, you might be doing yourself a
disservice by putting it in front of them before it's super solid.

T.P.L. NYC: What are the best ways you can
think of to find resources to getting your project ideas out to people or what
resources do you use?

C.S.: Well, the internet, obviously. Every
creative field has a vibrant community of fans and content creators online
these days, and you can find those people on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, message
boards and so on. Seek out people who know what you need to know and ask them
for help. Sure, you'll get the brush-off every once in a while, but you'd be
amazed at how often people are willing to help out.

T.P.L. NYC: You have mentioned that people can
establish a following online now in addition to print. Is it a bit of the
“chicken or the egg” paradox with starting things online? Do you feel you have
to have a print following first in order to have success online?

C.S.: Nope, not at all. If you're good, you'll
get noticed. You just need to be smart about promoting, and make yourself easy
to find.

T.P.L. NYC: If so, what are some ways people
can establish a following online? How did you do it?

C.S.: If you're doing something like a
webcomic, or you've got songs or video clips, put them up everywhere. Use the
many free tools available to promote yourself (mostly talking about social
networking here). Be relentless - without becoming insufferable. Use every
opportunity you can think of. It's hard to keep that balance sometimes, but
it's possible.

﻿

Cover for Strange Attractors

T

.P.L. NYC: You live in NYC and are writing a
series about an older and younger man who use the butterfly effect on New York
City. How did you come up with the idea for Strange Attractors?

C.S.: That's right - Strange Attractors is a beautiful graphic novel that's due to be
published in the first quarter of 2013 by Archaia Entertainment. Archaia's a
wonderful company - they do some amazing things with their books as far as
presentation. They've actually won the Eisner (the comic book equivalent of an
Oscar) for best graphic novel two years in a row, which is a stellar
achievement. Anyway, I've lived in NYC for more than fifteen years, and I've
always been fascinated by the city's thousands of systems big and small that
all somehow manage to work together to keep the lights on, keep us safe, and so
on. NYC is basically this massive organism designed to support millions of
people, as well as generate money, entertainment, fashion and all sort of other
things we export to the world. My preoccupation with the epic complexity of New
York made me want to write a story that would do justice to the incredible,
exotic environment in which I live. I decided that it would be interesting to
write about characters who were sufficiently perceptive to be able to
understand the NYC "machine" well enough to influence it via the
butterfly effect way you mentioned. Basically, they turn the city into sort of
an engine, and the story's about what happens when they turn the key.

T.P.L. NYC: With such a complex idea how much
preparation did it take you to get the story ready? Did you find the research
challenging?

C.S.: I did, but I like research as a rule. I
spent a lot of time reading books on complexity theory and chaos theory and how
they relate to one another. I'll confess that my mathematics background isn't
really sufficient to do anything like what's depicted in the book - I can just
barely understand the underlying theories (which are, understandably, pretty
damn complicated). Still, as a dumb writer, I don't have to. I can use the work
of my intellectual betters as the foundation for a fun story.

T.P.L. NYC: With an idea like this, I imagine
that it would require a lot of thinking to stage out the “cause and effect”
situation of the story, what are some of the exercises or techniques you use to
get ideas to form and flow for you?

C.S.: Index cards and flowcharts. I don't
always do that for stories - some I just let flow - but Strange Attractors needed to work in such a way that the entire
book functions almost the same way as I described the city - it's an engine,
with lots of interlocking parts. One thing affects another, and it all happens
in unexpected and hopefully cool ways. It took a lot of planning, but I'm very
happy with how it's all coming together.

T.P.L. NYC: How many issues is it and is it
available for purchase?

C.S.: Strange
Attractors will be released as a full-color hardcover of about 150 pages.
We're not putting it out as serialized single issues because it just seems like
the sort of story that will work better as one volume - a feast as opposed to a
number of little meals. You can see some art and learn a little more about the
project here: http://charlessoule.wordpress.com/category/writing/strange-attractors/

T.P.L. NYC: Why did you choose NYC as the
setting of the book? What is it about the city that inspires you?

C.S.: Well, it's hard not to be inspired by
this place. It's physically spectacular, from the very nature of Manhattan as
an island metropolis, to the architecture. It's also a place where the best of
everything comes, at one point or another. Finally, it's a place filled with
dreams - they're everywhere. New Yorkers are aspirants. I'm not saying it
always works out for everyone - dreams don't always come true - but it's still
quite a fertile environment. Inspiring.

T.P.L. NYC: You are also the writer of 27.
This is a very fun idea that is very relevant in pop culture, how did you go
about choosing to use this idea?

Cover for 27

C.S.: 27
is the series that broke me through as a comics writer - the first part of the
story started to come out in the fall of 2010, and it got a lot of attention
for an indie series from a writer few had ever heard of before. The premise of
the series is built around the legend of the "27 Club," the list of
famous musicians and artists who have died at twenty-seven years old. It's a
pretty staggering group: Hendrix, Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and most
recently Amy Winehouse (among many others.) In the series, I set up the reason
for these deaths as a sort of curse affecting brilliant twenty-seven year-olds,
almost a magical thing. It's related to the spirits of creativity and decay,
who appear as characters in the book. The main character is a famous rock star
guitarist, Will Garland, who gets hit with the 27 Club curse and has to try to
understand how it works and ultimately beat it so he can keep playing guitar
and rocking out. The story is soaked in references to rock and roll trivia history
and craziness. It's sort of a supernatural musical adventure, like the best
concert you've ever been to, but it's a book. The series has been collected
into two volumes so far, 27: First Set
and 27: Second Set, published by
Image/Shadowline. You can get them here, as well as a bunch of my other work: www.amazon.com/Charles-Soule/e/B003VNCONO/
in print versions, or here digitally: https://comics.imagecomics.com/#/series/5035
. The story is also being serialized online for free at Keenspot here: http://twenty-seven.keenspot.com. Check
it out - it's a lot of fun.

T.P.L. NYC: You mentioned how you like to add
many layers of complexity with each new project you take on. Since Strongman
you have written about many different things. What new areas do you think you
would like to explore in upcoming projects?

C.S.: I'd like to do something with really
large-scale action. I have a script that's based around gigantic battles and
swashbuckling adventure that I'd like to see come together. I'd also like to do
a horror script. 27 has some horror
elements, but they're more spooky or unsettling than outright terrifying. I
think it would be an amazing challenge to really try to scare people. One day,
hopefully! I have several series coming out over the next year that let me
stretch some of those other muscles, though. The next big thing after Strange Attractors is a political/sci-fi
thing, kind of like 24 meets 2001. After that, I've got a paranormal adventure
story, like an X-Files episode in comic book form, and some other really fun
things as well. Eventually, I'd like to try every genre at least once.

Cover for Strongman

T.P.L. NYC: With only so
many pages in a comic, what is a good way to tell a story without it feeling
rushed or having to cut out a lot of dialogue.

C.S.: This is really just a matter of
practice. The more you do it, the better you get at fitting into that 22-page
length. A single issue of a comic can't really sustain too many scenes, or it
starts to feel cluttered and scattershot. I usually start with a beginning and
end point (usually a cliffhanger) for an issue. I then think about the other
things I want the issue to accomplish, and decide how many scenes and locations
it will take to get there. Usually, I can figure out how to shift things around
to make it work. It's really an experience thing, though, I think. The more you
write the better you write.

T.P.L. NYC: Do you think you would like to
return to novel writing, or do you still write prose and fiction?

C.S.: I would love to, but the comics thing is really taking up almost all of
my writing time real estate right now. I've written a few screenplays for
features and shorts here and there, and I'm slowly working on a big book of...
fairy tales, basically, which will be prose, but it's hard. I'm getting to a
point where I can't just take as long as I want on any given project. Once
deadlines start to become a factor, it can be tough to find the time to work on
huge side projects, especially something like a novel. I'd really like to get
back to it, though. I'm sure I will, one of these days.

T.P.L. NYC: Is there an existing character or
comic book that you would like to work on? Do you feel that you only want to do
original material or would you like to adapt something already created?

C.S.: I would be thrilled to work on
established characters at some point. I'm doing some of that now, although it's
too early to talk about it in any detail. Most aspiring or established comics
writers want to take their turn at the big superhero books, if nothing more to
say they've done it, and I'm no exception. I'm very happy where I am in my
writing career, but if someone handed me the keys to Batman (or Robin, for that
matter), I'd go for it. I like street-level heroes. I think I could write a
nice Green Arrow, or Hulk, or Nightwing/Robin, and I've always liked The Flash
and Daredevil. It would be amazing to write a Star Wars story as well. But
really, I'm pretty jazzed to be where I am.

T.P.L. NYC: Where do you see the state of
comics in the next decade?

C.S.: Digital comics will reignite the
newsstand mentality, allowing people to get new stories in a quick, almost
disposable way, and then they'll purchase collected editions of the things they
love. So, a kid might read six issues of Spider-Man for a buck apiece on his
iPad, and then eventually he might get the collected graphic novel of those six
issues to stick on his shelf. I see single-issue print books - what the average
person thinks of as a comic book - becoming a specialty item printed and
purchased for nostalgic reasons, almost like LPs now. Still, it's all good - as
long as the readership grows, it'll work out. People will always love comics.

T.P.L. NYC: How do you go about getting your
artists? Which ones do you like to work with?

C.S.: It started out that I would find folks
online, via digital classified ad boards like digitalwebbing.com or
deviantart.com. I got in touch with some amazing artists that way. These days,
I'm fortunate to know tons of artists, just from being in the community. So, I
can email or call someone I know and see if they're interested in working
together. It's one of the most gratifying things about my time in the comics
world - getting to know so many spectacularly talented writers and artists.
Hanging out after hours at a comic con is like being dipped into a whirlpool of
ability - it's a huge rush.

T.P.L. NYC: Of all the different comics you’ve
written is there one that stands out as your favorite? Was there one that was
the most challenging or that you were disappointed with the outcome?

C.S.: This is like asking a parent to select
one of their children as their favorite. I love them all for different reasons,
even the ones that had a little trouble in the execution. The ones I worry
about the most are the stories that haven't made it into print yet. I have a
pile of unproduced treatments, scripts and stories that I'd love to have see
the light of day. Making that happen requires a lot of persistence and clever
working of the system - not to mention they have to be half-decent enough for
people to want to read them. But with a little luck, I'll get there, I hope.

T.P.L. NYC: What do you think readers would be
surprised to learn about you?

C.S.: I appeared on Jeopardy! I was on in early 2010. I didn't win, but I did well
nonetheless. It was a pretty amazing experience.

T.P.L. NYC: What is the most peculiar thing
you’ve seen or been a part of while living in New York City?

C.S.: NYC is an endless fountain of
peculiarity, but let's see... my band once played as the backing band for a
lingerie fashion show down on the Lower East Side. Our "green room"
was the ladies' dressing room. The models were all Eastern European and two
feet taller than everyone in the band. They could have cared less whether we
were there, too. Man, now I'm thinking through all the crazy things that have
happened since I've lived here. You don't have to look far in New York City to
come across something strange and wonderful.

Photo by Seth Kushner

T.P.L. NYC: What is the most peculiar thing
that has ever happened to you?

C.S.: Unprintable- but it didn't happen in
NYC. It happened in Singapore.

Read Charles Soule’s latest work in issue 18
of Images hilarious swords and sorcery series Skulllkickers, which will be available in print and digital
on September 26th. His story is called “The Corran’s Tale”and feature many other talented writers such
as Justin Jordan, Tradd Moore, Blair Butler, John Layman and Rob Guillory, and J.
Torres.